Core Temperature
by Koun Kukki
Summary: Completed! Vincent Valentine FFVII and an original character are stuck in Spira!Oh no!
1. Chapter 1

Core Temperature

Disclaimer: Since it's the first chapter, I'll do a real disclaimer thingy. I don't own or claim to own the characters that rightfully belong to Square-Enix, Square-Soft, and whatever else they may be called.

Note: I...uhm...accidentally erased this the first time around with chapter 2. So I'm re-writing it. Hopefully I'll remember enough of it to have it at least a little bit as good as it was at first. Stupid me didn't make a hand-written copy. cries

Chapter 1:

"Sir Auron?" Yuna walked carefully toward the dark man situated on the cliff. This was the direction he'd gone off in, surely it was Auron there, but...why wasn't he responding? She continued toward him and called again his name. Again, he didn't respond.

"Yuna?"

The summoner turned at the voice behind her and saw Auron walking toward her. "Sir Auron...s..?" Her head turned this way and that between the two "Aurons."

The Auron who was walking toward her shook his head and drew his sword, letting it ring in its arrival. The man on the cliff turned abruptly as he sensed his danger and in a flash his hand was drawing a tri-barreled gun from its holster. Yuna's mind was made up about the identities at that moment. The real Auron would never carry forbidden machina, and this one really looked nothing like Sir Auron, aside from his manner of dress.

He wore all red and black, even in his hair and eyes. His left arm was a gold colored metal gauntlet; the same metal made up his shoes. The stranger's hair was jet black, though it shown blue in certain light, and too long to be Auron's; and Auron was far more tan than this new person. He had his gun leveled on Auron, and Auron had the Masamune's tip at the stranger's throat. "Who are you?" the stranger blurted out lowly.

Auron's eyes narrowed in wrath. "We ask the questions. Who are _you?_"

"Where am I?" he persisted, breaking Auron's patience. His gun was flipped from his hand with a twitch of Auron's sword; it clattered of to the left. The stranger was then moved by Auron to the face of another cliff which he hit with a pained grunt. "Where am I?" he asked again...

But was cut of by Auron. "Who are you?"

The pale man narrowed his eyes and considered his reply. "A nightmare."

"Really," Auron said skeptically. Even as he said so he began to see the intruder's red cloak morph into a purple color and become more like a pelt, while the air seemed to thicken with the mans wrath. Just as soon as Auron noticed though, the scene disappeared.

"Really," the man assured him.

"Sir Auron?" Yuna got closer to the two warring persons.

"You thought this was me?" the older guardian asked.

Yuna nodded. "From the back...and in the shadow," she looked toward the shadows at the edge of the cliff cast from the rock face the intruder was pinned against. "Sir Auron...?"

"Why are you here?" Auron asked the man.

He ground his teeth together before answering. "I'm trying to figure that out myself." When Auron showed no sign of moving, the stranger slipped a hand to the wall and pushed, shouldering Auron roughly out of the way and sending him staggering back a few feet. He then faced Yuna and the group of people massed behind her. "Who are you?"

"Yuna..." a lady in a dark fur dress leaned forward and spoke into Yuna's ear. "I don't think he means any harm. In fact...he seems scared out of his wits."

The summoner nodded. "Why don't we sit," she motioned to the camp site that was not too far away, "there, and discus everything more comfortably?"

The dark man was still defensive. "And my gun?" he looked to Yuna.

Auron didn't wait for her to speak and instead took charge. "You will get it back if we find you can be trusted." With that he slung his sword onto his back and walked to the camp.

"First things first: who are you?" After they had all returned to the camp site they had given the stranger their names. It was Wakka who spoke now as they all situated themselves on logs which served as seats around an ash pit from a burned out fire. The man's gun lay on a round of wood in the center of the ashes, unloaded.

The man, who was sitting by himself on a log, face half-way covered by the lip of his cloak, closed his eyes before answering. "My name is Vincent Valentine," he went on with facts he thought mattered to those assembled before him. "...ex-Turk of Shinra Company, who's head is...was located on the upper plate of Midgar."

Tidus, who was sitting beside Wakka, leaned forward a bit. "Midgar?"

"Midgar," Vincent repeated, nodding. "I live there now, though I spent years dreaming in Nibelheim." By the tone of his voice, the others could tell he had bad memories.

"Hm," Auron started. "Must have been some dream. There are no places by the names of Midgar or Nibelheim, not in Spira."

Vincent closed his eyes again as his brows came together in thought. "...Spira...?"

Tidus spoke up. "Maybe he's like me: from Spira's past?"

Auron shook his head, silencing any other notions. "How did you get here, then?"

Vincent shook his head, not realizing Auron had just done so. "I don't know."

"Tell us what you do know," Auron demanded.

Vincent bowed his head slightly, covering more of his face, then lifted it again and began. "I've spent the last three months searching for a woman, Harper. She was taken by a group of three who planned to recreate the man who tried to kill the planet. Finally I did find her, in the Forgotten Capitol..." he gave a curt laugh that the others didn't understand. "It took just a bit of convincing, but I got her to come back home with me. We lived with six other people in Midgar, in the slums under the plate. Sector 7." Vincent paused, feeling his voice was about to break with the emotion he felt for the end of this particular story. "When we got back, everyone was overjoyed, even the man who owned the airship I took without asking so I could search. For a while, everything was fine. Life returned to the way it had been. Harper went back to her job in the shop attached to the house, and some of the time the others and I would go off on a trip we were sent on by some city who needed something killed..." he closed his eyes against the burning in his eyes. Vincent Valentine, ex-Turk, was not going to let these people, these absolute strangers, see him cry.

"But it didn't stay that way," Lulu assumed.

Vincent took a deep breath and went on. "No." His crimson eyes met Auron's brown ones. "We had been home for six weeks before the unexpected happened..." His emotion reached the point that could free one of his monsters if he let it, but he didn't, grinding his teeth again to keep them in. It created a pause during which Yuna thought he wasn't going to continue. Feeling that he had better finish before they all got up and left, he jerked his head up abruptly and went on. "That's when they came back. The three," his stone gaze was fixed on Yuna, demanding her attention. "...who took her in the first place. They came back in the middle of the night. Cloud, Harper and I were just about to go to bed, in fact, she already had just walked down the hall. There was a struggle, that I could tell, but in the end they won...and I was unable to do a thing."

"Do..." Yuna seemed genuinely concerned. "Do you know anything about where they went?"

Vincent laughed and smiled sarcastically. "No. No I don't... they left a note... 'We have come to dispose of our sister.'" He recited.

There was a long silence. Vincent emptied his mind and with it, his emotions and simply watched the others as they sat, watching him. Wakka even was going to say something, but withheld. Yuna sat across from him, beside Auron, measuring him with her eyes before she stood and walked toward him, pausing at the wood in the ashes. "Vincent." He looked up at her. "I hope you're able to find her." Bending at her knees, she picked up his gun and its ammunition and handed it to him. "Why don't you get some rest?"

Vincent took his gun and loaded it, nodding. "Thank you." He looked around for a shady place to rest.

"Tidus?" Yuna turned and Tidusjumped up. "Would find a good place for Vincent?"

"Yep! This way!" Tidus sprinted toward Vincent and grabbed him by his wrist, pulling him toward the cluster of tents to the left of the campfire. "Here ya go... eh...Hold on a sec!" He spun to face the still gathered people and sought out Kimahri. "Hey!"Tidus stood on his toes and waved an arm in the air. "Kimahri! Can Vincent use your tent?"

The Ronso replied with a nod before he walked away.

"Hm... I didn't think he would... he must like you!" he assured a silent Vincent, who didn't really care where he slept. He grabbed the tent flap and held it open for him to go inside, but before he could, he laid a hand on his shoulder. "You know..." he trailed off and looked in Yuna's direction. "Yuna will probably ask you to become a guardian." When Vincent just stared at her she realized something. "I know you don't know what that is... but be sure that she'll explain it all to you if she does ask!" With that, he slipped behind him and propelled him into the tent.

Note: Well finally! Took me forever and it's not as long as it was...but oh well. At least it exists huh?


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I don't own...

Note: Sorry about the misstep in the first chapter. I realized later that day that Rikku hadn't joined the group then... Oopsy. So I went back and edited the chapter and then replaced it. Again, Sorry. I'd really love it if people would start reviewing. I don't care what you say. Anything is better than nothing.

"Hmm?" the tall blue-haired man stopped walking.

"What is it, Maester Seymour?" a Guado guardian asked his master.

"Over there," Seymour gestured to a tiny trail leading away from the main road. On either side of the branch off were rock walls. "Something is out of place."

"Shall we be seeing what it is?" the other guardian asked.

"Mmm," Seymour nodded and led the way. It was a tight fit for the three even when they walked single file. Seymore had a rough time fitting his broad shoulders through the tight walkway. It wasn't long before Seymour stopped and looked around again. Spotting another, tighter passage, Seymore told his guardians to stay behind, going on alone. It got so tight in the passage that the man actually had to turn sideways to go on. Soon, the squeeze let out into a round area that was rather large. "Ah." In the centre of the circle lay a body seemingly void of life. Seymour entered the clearing and strode to the limp figure, discovering that it was a girl...or a woman. Not far from her lay two weapons, guns, but he paid them no attention. The low walls of the clearing gave the person no protection from the high sun of noon and she'd gotten a horrible sun-burn. She shivered all over from the fever caused by the exposure. Seymour picked her up only where she was clothed: her back where the tank top was, and her legs by the shorts. Carefully he brought her back to the place that his guardians were waiting for him.

"Maester Seymour?" they stood and stared for a moment at the silver-haired woman in his arms.

"I'd say she's out of place wouldn't you?" he asked laying the girl down and putting the guns he'd found in one of the groups packs. After looking in awe at the weapons, the Guado nodded. "I'd like to help her recover, but we can't do that here," Seymour stated.

"We are going back to the last travel agency, then?" the younger guardian inquired.

"Yes, we are."

With the two Guado's and Seymour's help, the girls burn healed overnight and left, hardly tanning her skin. Now, a day later, all three waited anxiously for her to wake. The sculpt of her features and especially her silver hair reminded them of Seymour. For Seymour...he thought she could be a lost sister. When finally she did wake, she remembered little, only her name, age, and her father's name.

She was Harper: a twenty-five year old woman, and the one and only daughter of the nightmare, Sephiroth. Harper didn't remember Sephiroth's significance or why she shivered when on the brink of remembering some things. Those shrouded memories that chilled her so weren't remembered, and for that she was happy.

Harper walked into the common room of the travel agency and sat on a couch beside Seymour. "Where are the Guado?" she asked.

"Asleep. Healing you was hard work," he said in reply.

She could tell by his tone that it wasn't any kind of accusation. It was almost as if he meant to poke fun at her just by way of that simple statement. So Harper laughed and rested her head against the back of the couch, Doing so was like falling into a solemn mood; the maester beside her seemed to notice.

"We will move on when you've remember everything you can, or you may not wish to stay with us...Whatever suits you."

"Where would I go, Maester? With no memories, no idea how I stand with other people.."Harper trailed off, letting Seymour figure the rest out for himself.

"I see. How are you doing with memories?"

"Hmf," she rolled her eyes even though they were closed. "Not, great, but I'm getting closer to something. I'm not sure I really want to know what's happened. See...if memories scare me when I can't remember...what will it be like when I know what they're of?" Harper explained.

"It would be hard to start from scratch, and lonely. I'm sure some thing from your past, you would like to remember," Seymour objected.

"Like:

"Well," Seymour closed his eyes in thought. "Wouldn't you like to know if you're married or not?"

"Mmmm...maybe., but what if I didn't like my husband?" Harper countered.

Seymour laughed. "I do hope you remember something."

"Thank you, Maester Seymour."

"Please," he objected as he stood, "just call me Seymour."

Harper smiled and nodded. "Thanks, Seymour," she corrected herself. "So...where are we going?"

"Mushroom Rock. Perhaps on the journey you'll discover some things about yourself, and this Sephiroth...Harper?"

It was the first time someone else had said Harper's father's name, and it jarred something in her locked-down memories. A string of events rapidly unfolded for her. Shinra, Mako, Jenova... Sephiroth...and so on. Almost everything. Avalanche... but one piece was left out...and she didn't know it had been. "Seymour?" Harper questioned after she had finished telling him what just happened. "Am I...bad?"

"Bad?" he echoed. "I certainly don't think so—"

"But..."

"We would know by now if you were," Seymour assured her.

"Thanks, You know, I think I have everything now," Harper said, feeling somehow good as new. "All the empty spaces seem filled in now...but..."

"I suppose you feel strangely about being from this...Midgar place as there is no such city in Spira." Harper nodded to that. "You know, I met a young man in Luca who had a story much like yours," Seymour started. At Harper's surprised and confuse look, he went on. "His name was Tudus. He was from Zanarkand, a city that was destroyed one-thousand years ago."

"What?" She sat up now and looked at him with wide eyes. "How..."

"Apparently he was brought here by Sun: it seemed a simple explanation to him, but for Harper...

"Sin?"

Seymour laughed good-naturedly at her ignorance. "You really aren't from Spira, are you?"

"Hey!" Harper defended herself.

Seymour's laughter ended slowly. "Very well then..." the two stayed there most of the day as Seymour answered every question Harper threw at him. For Seymour, it was a relief to be talked to as an equal for a change, and not as a maester of Spira. For Harper, it was a relief to have a friend in a strange world. It was a world exactly the opposite of everything she was used to. A world run by people and beasts instead of by machines and tyrants. It was unreal, and at the end of the day Harper was exhausted.

Quick, hard knocks on her door woke Harper. "Hey! Maester Seymour and his guardians said they're leaving with or without you!" It was a worker in the agency.

"Nuh..." At first it didn't register with Harper, but that didn't last long. "AHH!" She jumped out of bed and grabbed the guns Seymour had given her (they WERE hers) from the dresser-top as she flew though the door, down the hall, and through the entrance/exit door to the agency. She burst through the door still pulling on her shoes. "Hey!" Harper shouted to the shrinking trio. When they didn't stop or slow at all, she yanked her boot laces into knots and took off after them. Harper was out of breath by the time she caught up with them. "Hey—Ow!" She grimaced and clutched at the pain in her side from running. The stitch subsided enough and she stood, planting her hands on her hips and glaring at Seymour and his guardians. "You could have woken me up you know." Harper relaxed and noticed her terribly askew hair. Groaning, she began fighting with it with her finger. "Now I'm a mess and I've made myself look like an idiot in front of you three."

"Nonsense," Seymour dismissed her attack with a wave of his long-fingered hand. "I was unsure if you were coming with us, so I decided that since you know what you need to of Spira, and have you memory back, you would decide to stay behind yourself. I'm sorry for the trouble caused you."

"Oh, okay. Sorry, then, for barking at you like that," she offered. The guardians looked as if they expected something more from her. Harper stared at them. "What?"

"Well," the shorter stepped forward. "It is customary to address Maester Seymour by his title when speaking to him." He said it very nicely so he didn't offend her.

"Hnnn..." In her mind Harper fidgeted with what Seymour had told her the day before and what she was being told at that moment. "Oh. Sorry, Maester Seymour." She decided that in public she would abide by custom, but when away from everyone he would just be Seymour.

That decision was drowned instantly by Seymour's playful rebuke. "What did I tell you yesterday?"

Harper laughed as the four started walking again. "Alright, Seymour." She looked at the Guado who had spoken as she said that. In response, he looked ahead emotionlessly. "You don't mind my coming, do you?" Harper asked while she concentrated on walking and buckling her gun belt.

"Of course not," Seymour replied. "If I did, I would have never offered in the first place."

"Good."

"Why's that?"

"Because I was beginning to thing you're too nice to be trusted," Harper said, all jest aside.

"Had some experience you haven't told me about?" Seymour asked with the same seriousness.

"Nope. Not that I know of. But...what makes you think I'd tell you?"

"Nothing. I guess somewhere in there," he meant her personality, "is the twenty-five year old woman you claim to be."

Harper laughed nervously and scratched at a nonexistent itch at the back of her head. "She's buried deeply sometimes. But I lived with a four year old and a seventeen year old...do you really expect me to act my age all the time?" she tested.

"No, not at all," came his understanding reply. A note of concern found its way into his voice when he asked suddenly, "Can you defend yourself?"

Harper was taken back. "You think because I'm a girl I can't do things for myself?"

"I'm just concerned. You see, I don't know about your world but it's not safe here in Spira, so you need to be able to protect yourself from whatever may decided to come your way," he explained.

"Hm...Well, it wasn't safe back home either. In Midgar you had to watch out for the creatures the government, Shinra, created—are you really that surprised?"

Seymour nodded and said that he would never do something like that to the citizens of Spira.

"Yeah, well, Shinra was good for those people who could afford to live upper-level..." Harper shook off the Seymour's look of confusion when she realized that she hadn't told him of Midgar's construction. "Different story. Well anyway, you had to watch out for the monsters a lot, but you had to keep a closer eye on the people. For instance..." she went off into the story of how Cloud was forced to cross-dress to save Tifa from the clutches of Don Corneo. There were funny parts to the story, but neither forgot the reason the story was being told. That day, a lot of stories were told. During the entire story telling time the Guado were so silent that Harper almost completely forgot about them. So it surprised her when they interrupted her to announce that they had reached the entrance to Mushroom Rock Road. The rest of the current story was left untold. "That was quick," she commented.

"We were not far from it to begin with," Seymour objected.

They entered the highway silently, and only a few steps down the road Seymour called the party to a halt. He had the same feeling as he had had a few days ago when he found Harper. Seymour quickly explained the feeling and dismissed it as whatever it was moved off.

At the end of the days walk they turned done a side road and made camp. When the Guado had got the fire started Harper exited her tent and sat on the ground beside Seymour. "Cow close are we now to the gates?"

"We will be there by noon tomorrow," a Guado answered.

"Mmmm..."Harper nodded and wondered why Seymour wasn't talking. "You feeling okay, Seymour?"

"I'm fine," he answered softly, absently.

"Okay..." she stood quickly, catching the other's attention.

"What are you doing?" Seymour asked when she stretched her legs and arms.

"I..." she bent to grab for her tows and rolled out of that position, stretching then her back muscles. "...am going look for whatever it is that's out of place."

"But...Maester Seymour has said nothing more about it" a Guado, not the one who had spoken before, objected.

"Well...he's not the only one who felt it, you know; I did too and it hasn't left me, only dimmed when we stopped here. So, I'm going to find it," Harper stated. There would be no changing her mind. The other's felt her resolve as she turned and went to her tent. She came out a moment later with her two guns. "Besides," she started, "if anything gets messy...I can handle it!" To emphasize her point, Harper took out Silence and spun it flatly in her pal, caught it by the handle suddenly and opened the bullet chamber, checking to see if she had enough shots should she run into something. Silence and Final Judgment were full; she even had one extra clip for each tucked away in pouches on her belt. "See?"

"Seymour nodded approval which he knew she didn't care about. Harper would go whether or not he liked it, and he didn't doubt her claim of being able to protect herself. "Are we to expect your return? Or are you leaving for good?"

"Neh..."Harper shrugged. "Depends on what's found. I know where you'll be tomorrow," she shrugged again. "I'll find you if I need to!" With that, she turned and trotted off into the encroaching darkness.

Note: How's that for a long piece of work? R&R please!


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Disclaimer: I don't know if I would want to own anyone other than Harper, so...I'm kinda glad that all the other chars. belong to Square-Enix.

Note: Well... Maybe that'll give you some insight or whatever.

Vincent sat in the shadows, away from the warmth of fire and the fellowship of the group. Thought ran rampant through his head. Over the course of only a few days, he's been addressed as "Sir Auron"... countless times. After everything was explained to him, Yuna's pilgrimage, he was even asked to be a guardian. He'd been told by Wakka that it was so unusual that they hadn't run into any creatures yet...but Vincent thought mostly about what it meant to be a guardian. Such as: what was the fine print, and could he pull out if he wanted or needed to. The chatter from camp drifted to his ears as he thought, and so did the sound of sliding gravel.

He pin-pointed the noise, which had come from his left, down a sliver of road, and if he listened more intently he could just make out footsteps. This person could creep like Yuffie, the ninja girl from his home. Vincent's reflexes moved him before he knew what he was doing as just to his immediate left, gravel crunched under the other person's feet. Cerberus was out in a flash, cocked and aimed at the spot his instincts had chosen.

A gasp came from the shadows ahead of Vincent. Apparently they hadn't seen him before then. The intruder moved just as Cerberus sand, its bullet barely missing its mark

Auron jumped at the sound of the gunshot. "Yuna!"

High Summoner Yuna ran to Auron's side, "I heard. Was it Vincent?"

"It could have been no one else," he answered non-condescendingly.

Wakka, Tidus, and Kimahri appeared beside them and, as Auron dashed off in Vincent's direction, Auron motioned for the other three to follow. The moon illuminated the scene dimly. Auron halted the party as the rest of Yuna's guardians and the summoner caught up with them. Vincent whirled from rock ledge to seemingly smooth wall as shots continued to sound while he spun out of some one else's range. This some one else, they soon discovered, was a woman with hair almost as long as Maester Seymour's. She moved as lightning fast as Vincent, and was armed with guns too. Both were excellent gunmen, missing each other only because they were as good at evading attacks as they were at delivering them. The summoner's party was mesmerized by the violent grace of the two opponents' actions.

Suddenly, after a dash to the left, Vincent stopped and lowered his gun, Cerberus. Even in the relative darkness Auron could see the look of astonishment on Vincent's face, but everyone's entrancement was broken rudely when Vincent took a shot to his left shoulder.

The other person materialized from a shadowy nook, one gun in hand and the other holstered at her side, and in a flash was landing a foot in Vincent's chest, sending him a few feet. The next moment she was in the air and coming down with her foot in the same spot.

Tidus was incredulous. "Why isn't he fighting back?" he questioned Auron as he attempted to rush to Valentine's aid.

"No." Kimahri laid a heavy hand on Tidus's shoulder.

"D'you see Vincent stop there?" Wakka pointed out. "He knows something about that girl, ya?"

"Yes," Auron confermed.

Vincent winced as she landed atop him. His shoulder burned like mad, and the extra pressure wasn't helping it at all, but... "H—"

"Who are you?"

"..." Vincent was paralyzed with abrasive understanding: Harper didn't remember. "Sir Valentine...High Summoner Yuna's guardian." That was all the answer he knew how to give. What else could he say?

"What...?" it sounded as if a dim recognition had stirred in her.

He said again, with more words, "Sir Vincent Valentine."

Harper's eyes popped wide open as the final piece if her memory chinked into place. The three months leading to that point were revealed to her. Kadaj and the others, their "ingenious" plan to get another Sephiroth, Vincent's saving her. "I just... sh..." she went limp and Vincent, ignoring the pain ripping through his shoulder, caught her in mid-fall, setting her down gently on the ground beside him.

Yuna was the first to reach him, "Sir Valentine, your shoulder..." The summoner began the hand movements for a healing spell, but Vincent shook his head. "But..." she began again.

"I know," Vincent cut her off with a stern glance when she was going to say something else. He stood with regret in pain form as he used his left arm to help him, wincing at the unaccustomed pain.

"That's got to hurt though; how can you take it?" And...why did you even give her the chance to get at you?" Tidus asked, looking from the girls limp figure to Vincent.

When he didn't answer, Lulu stepped up behind Tides. "I think a better question would be this: who is she?"

"Harper, the girl from Midgar I had told you about when we first met." Wishing it had been his right shoulder instead of his left so his real hand didn't have to feel his shoulder's insides, he answered an imminent question. "She shot because she didn't know me: something made her forget..." he laughed to himself, surprising the others with what he said next. "I would have been happy if she did know, and shot before she realized."

"But, she could have killed you," Wakka spoke everyone's mind.

Vincent looked at Harper with a contentedness new to him. Peaceful as she seemed then, he knew that when she woke up she'd be in pieces over the whole thing. That's how she was. He looked up at the people waiting for an explanation. Remembering why, he said, "She would have been on her guard."

"Does she know you now?" Auron asked suddenly.

Vincent closed his eyes and opened them after answering, "Yes." He knew what was coming next. After his years as a Turk, how could he not?

"And did you know, Sir Valentine," Auron stressed the title, "that her wounding you would spark her memory?"

Vincent hated the obscure reprimand. "No," he said in a controlled tone.

"What would have happened if you had died?" Auron continued, equally controlled.

"I wasn't going to."

The others began moving off, sensing the tension in the air, but they left Harper where she was. They knew Vincent wouldn't like it if they took her and that, at the moment, he didn't need anything added to Auron.

"You know that?"

Vincent nodded.

Auron was startled. Valentine was turning out to be less and less like Tidus and Wakka than he had at first assumed. He knew Vincent was dead serious, but he wanted to know, "How? How can you know?"

Vincent bit down to keep Chaos from uncontrollably ripping through him. Chaos... Auron had explained "overdrives." "You told me, that when the time is right you can unleash an attack better than all your others..." Vincent had not told them about the "friends" he carried with him. "So can I, but..." he let go his hold on Chaos and pain in his chest made him stagger back. He was able to keep his sentence going as more pain exploded throughout his entire form when wings erupted from his back and unfurled. "...there is one definite difference between us, Auron." Vincent's voice melted away and gave way to Chaos rougher, deeper one. "All it takes, for me..." Chaos, under Vincent's direction, launched himself into the air, catching himself gracefully with a flutter of leathery wings before he could start to fall. "...is anger." Chaos looked down at Auron, who was wide-eyes with alarm, and crossed his arms.

A smaller figure joined Auron. Chaos recognized it as Yuna and came down lightly in front of them both, knowing that Vincent respected Yuna. "Sir Vincent?"

Vincent's respect couldn't keep Chaos from speaking his mind. "Don't 'Sir Vincent' me, Lady Yuna," he growled, annoyed that he had only a little control over what he did. Why Shinra chose Vincent Valentine to be his prison, he couldn't figure out. "Valentine's out of the picture 'till he cools off enough to control me," he spat.

"... 'Out'? Who are you?" Yuna asked, undaunted by his attitude.

The creature gave her and Auron a wicked smile of fangs which was more like a cat baring its teeth. "I am Chaos, and one of Vincent's other sides."

"What?" Tidus, who had walked back to them only a moment ago, asked. "Others?"

"There are four of us others."

"There are five sides of Vincent then," Auron asked, incredulous.

"No," Chaos answered in a condescending tone as his voice changed back to Vincent's, his body slowly following.

Vincent straightened himself and looked apologetically at Yuna, who nodded. "No," he picked up where Chaos left off. "There is only one of me. Chaos is proud and deplores me. Never listen to him when he talks about himself and me—"

"And the others he mentioned?" Yuna tested.

"Gallian Beast, Death Gigas, and Hellmasker. Chaos is the fourth and strongest, but Death Gigas has more endurance."

"And they..." Tidus began.

"Reside in me, in my mind most of the time. I only loose them in battle...most of the time," on that note he shot Auron a glance before he stooped and gathered up Harper, noticing that his shoulder was healed by the transformation.

Auron noticed too.

Vincent, Harper still out in his arms, looked at Auron emotionlessly. "I won't let myself die," he said as he started walking to camp.

"Hey," Tidus caught Vincent's attention and double stepped to catch up with him. "Are you sure about that shoulder?"

Vincent stopped walking and turned to Tidus. "It's fine," he said, noticing Yuna trotting to catch up. Wondering why they cared, he shrugged and told Yuna again not to worry.

"At least let me look when you get a chance moment," she insisted earnestly.

Vincent was amazed. Avalanche cared, but not like Yuna did, or seemed to. The Turks cared because he was one of the best and at that specific time he wasn't expendable. Yuna didn't need him—she had six other guardians—so why did she care? Finally he nodded, "If it would make you feel better."

Yuna drew back in surprise, not expecting consent, but smiled happily before nodding to confirm and walked away in the direction of camp with Tidus.

"Good call man."

Vincent turned and discovered Wakka, who had watched. "Thank you," he said as he tried to position Harper in a way that was possibly more comfortable and less pathetic looking.

"You want a hand with her?"

He didn't need help, but Vincent didn't mind Wakka's company. He nodded. "Alright."

The short walk back to camp was silent, but Wakka had questions about Vincent's "friends" and Vincent knew it. So when Wakka opened the tent-flap for Vincent and turned to leave, Vincent stopped him and made him take a seat inside beside him. After a moment more of silence, Vincent asked abruptly, "What do you want to ask?"

His question startled Wakka. "You have a sixth sense or something?"

Vincent couldn't help laughing at that because it was the first time some one had asked him that. "No. No, I just know people, Wakka," he said deftly unbuckling and taking off his cloak.

"Oh, ok...you sure I can ask?"

"Yes."

Still Wakka hesitated, thinking about what could happen if Vincent got too angry at something...

"I have them under control, Wakka, not the other way around," Vincent said softly as he looked tenderly at Harper.

Wakka uttered a nervous laugh. "Sorry." Vincent nodded to say he didn't care that Wakka was apprehensive. "Chaos, all of 'em, how'd they—"

"Vincent?" Wakka was interrupted byLulu's poking her head into the tent. She was answered with a blank look but a questioning uplifting of maroon eyes from Vincent. "Yuna still wants to check your shoulder."

Vincent nodded ad looked back to Harper, wishingLulu would leave then.

She didn't and, to his dismay, persisted. "Sometime today?"

"She means 'now'," Wakka translated.

Again Vincent nodded and got up to be led byLulu to the center campfire where she said Yuna would be. On their way there, Wakka called back to Vincent the question of should he stay with Harper or not, to which Vincent answered with the cryptic message that he didn't mind.

"Sir Valentine," Yuna stood as he approached.

He couldn't help think that now everyone was edgy around him. "You don't have to call me that," he offered, taking a seat where Yuna's gentle hand directed. Across from them sat a watchful Auron.

"Oh..." Yuna said hesitantly as she pried open a little more the bullet hole in his clothes.

"Here," Tidus said, walking up behind Vincent, "This will make it much easier..." Before Vincent knew what Tidus meant, he found his left shoulder completely barred after Tidus pushed the back of Vincent's shirt over his head, leaving Vincent almost shirtless and extremely uncomfortable as well as annoyed. "Tidus..." he stopped when he saw the astounded look on both their faces. They were staring at his shoulder. It was drenched in blood, but there was no wound.

"How..." Yuna started and began wiping at the drying blood with a damp cloth. When it was all mopped up, she brushed her fingers over the smooth skin.

Vincent wrapped his right fingers over hers, snatching her attention. When their gazes met, he explained. "Chaos. If I am hurt when he emerges, then my body is healed. It is the same way with the others." He released her hand at the creatures mention and she drew back to a normal distance. He knew he still had not yet replaced his shirt, but a question burned more importantly. Vincent looked into the fire, wishing it was in the fireplace in Midgar, and asked, "Am I no longer your guardian, Lady Yuna?"

"What?" she asked back.

Vincent expanded on what he meant. "I kept something from you," he meant Chaos, Gallian Beast, and the other two. "Secrets...do they make me unfit to be your guardian?"

"No," Yuna folded her hands in her lap. "...not unless they are dangerous secrets. Are they?"

"No. Just sad ones...memories. I will be a guardian and protect you to the full extent of my abilities as long as I am not questioned. I will not die so I may live to protect you—"

"Would you die for her?" asked Lulu from across the blaze, in a place even Vincent couldn't see.

She was silenced by Vincent's standing and pulling his shirt back on properly. "No," he said slowly. "I won't need to." He skirted the fire and walked between Auron and Riku.

Those present thought he was going off alone again. Until they heard a new voice whisper Vincent's name and turned to look. There, at the edge of the flickering firelight, stood Vincent, arms encircling Harper's shoulders, comforting her.

Note: Chapter three everybody! R&R!


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4:

Note: May I remind people, or inform, I don't know which, that this is a clean story. Free of any real adult material.

Tidus watched the night's scene once more in his minds eye. Somehow Vincent and Harper confused him more than he thought possible. What it was about them that confused him so, he didn't know. Yet, at the same time their relationship confused him, they seemed right for each other.

Last night, when Vincent met Harper at the edge of the firelight, they had walked away and to Vincent's tent. No one had seen them since. Tidus had asked almost everyone if they thought Vincent and Harper should be checked on for...obvious reasons, and, to his astonishment, everyone said no, that they should be left alone.

Thinking that over, he noticed a red spot at the top of a high cliff nearby. A breeze picked up, unfurling a deep red cape and revealing a crouched figure. Tidus glanced back to Vincent's tent, then back to the person. "Hey! Vincent?"

In return he got up and waved an arm which glinted in the setting sun, telling Tidus that it was Vincent. He squatted back down, but not as far, and uncoiled, flinging himself into the air. Tidus worried that he'd come plummeting down, suicide-like, but he didn't. In mid-fall Vincent seemed to slow to a sort of float and came to the ground gently in front of Tidus, who couldn't help but think, _Eiry._ "How'd you get up there without us seeing you leave your tent?" Tidus asked, really wondering and not just making conversation.

Vincent looked at him for a moment before giving a smile, a small one still...but a smile that was heart-felt. "I have talents," he replied, a happier note sounding in his voice.

"You seem happier," Tidus said as he caught that note. "What was it?"

"..." Vincent closed his eyes, a blissful look still vaguely on his face. "Har..."

He was interrupted as his attention was jerked to his tent. "Ack! Get OFF!" A spinning, dipping, and really thrashing mass of skin, clothing and white hair tumbled from the tent and onto the ground. Harper was clawing at something that, Vincent assumed, was on her or in the legs of the pants he had loaned her. "Ick!" ...He just couldn't see it.

Vincent and Tidus ran to her in a flash, ready for trouble. Vincent got to her first and grabbed her by her waist, not noticing that the tight shirt she'd slept in was rolled up to the bottom of her sternum, to try to shake her out of her hysteria, but it was then that a small lizard like creature slithered up onto her exposed belly. He blinked in surprise as she gasped and started writhing in his grasp when more of the things crawled from the bottom of her pants. "What..." There were two things going through Vincent's mind. One: What are these things? Two: She can go through three months with Kadaj, Loz, and Yazoo, and yet she's afraid of a few lizards? He shook off those thoughts and snatched the creature from her stomach, throwing it into the forest a few yards away. Harper calmed down quickly once it was gone, then began to explain as Auron walked up with an amused look in his eyes.

"Don't look at me like that, You!" Harper didn't know everyone's names, so she called Auron whatever came to mind when she saw him.

"It was rather funny," Auron said, moving bangs from his face. "What was it exactly that scared you so?"

"Lots of multi-colored lizards..." she fixed her shirt and went on. "They were everywhere when I woke, in fact...it was them who woke me." Harper shuddered at the remembered image of opening her eyes and seeing the face of one of the creatures. "I'm not really scared of them. They just surprised me." Then she began untangling her hair, seemingly oblivious to Auron's eyes.

Tidus shifted his weight and asked, "What colors were they?"

"Mmm...Orange, black, and blue-ish. Kinda cute really." Harper looked up from her working with her hair at the two strangers, knowing that there would be many more questions.

Auron blinked in surprise. "Little Ipiria... they must have been babies."

"Ipiria?" Harper and Vincent asked at the same time.

"A type of enemy here in Spira. You were lucky to only have babies. Adults are vicious."

Harper nodded once before directing a glance to Tidus question-filled eyes. "Ask away! I know you want to! ..." she looked to Auron. "And I think you think you need to ask... Did they torture you with questions, Vincent?"

He couldn't keep himself from laughing as he answered, "It wasn't torture..." Vincent resumed his usual seriousness and went on, "They have their reasons for precaution."

"Of course!" Harper chimed having forgotten her rude awakening. "Cloud was lucky! Who knows: I could very well be a villain in Spira. Who knows what's different in this world than in ours, Vincent." She said the last to assure him that it wouldn't be her design if she was the malevolent intruder in this. "So go ahead and ask whatever you want to."

Auron nodded and turned to Tidus, "Go get Lady Yuna." Tidus ran off in to the larger cluster of tents. His gaze turned back to Harper and Vincent went to her side. "How long have you been in Spira, that you know of?"

Harper drew her bottom lip into her mouth and lightly bit on it in thought. "Four days now, that I can think of. Why?"

Auron cracked a knuckle with a thumb absently.

"That's how long I've been here, too," Vincent said, hardly speaking above a whisper.

"Hello," Yuna said as she entered the scene. "You must be Harper." The young summoner walked up to her and bowed in greeting.

Harper, tutored briefly by Vincent who was taught by Wakka, returned the bow and , coming up from it, said, "Vincent talked about you. You must be High Summoner Yuna." Harper spoke the words, but didn't know what they stood for. Vincent had told her that it would all be explained, most likely anyway.

Yuna nodded to her and to Auron as a way to say "resume".

"So you both arrived four days ago," Auron began, "Were you in anyone's company when you arrived?"

Harper flipped her newly finished braid over her right shoulder. "Yes. I was told that I was found in an open space somewhere along the end of the Mi'ihen Highroad, in a low-walled outcropping and was badly sun burnt—"

"But you've no trace of this sunburn," Yuna interjected.

"...Because I was healed. I awoke knowing nothing much about myself. Later pieces were put into place..." she looked sorrowfully at Vincent. His face betrayed no emotion, but she was able to see the emotions he showed only her through his deep violet eyes. "Except for a certain memory. Three months were missing, and I didn't know until last night. Vincent told you about my little waltz with my 'brothers', I'm sure. It was that which was misplaced." Harper hung her head in silence as she skimmed through those memories. She was startled from them by Auron's voice.

"Who was it that did all this finding and healing?" he asked.

"Maester Seymour and his guardians."

Yuna gasped and bowed the prayer. "You were in the presence of a great man."

Harper didn't really hear her though. She was trying to remember whether or not she had told Seymour if she would catch up with him, or return. Finding Vincent Valentine, of all people, in this strange place, in as much of a predicament as she was in, had altered her plans with Seymour. At the same time that she felt obligated to remain with Seymour because of his unquestioning kindness, she knew she couldn't leave Vincent's side. Although he would tell her that she could do whatever she wanted. She wouldn't leave him, she knew as much. Maester Seymour would simply have to understand, and he would, she knew, because he had told her that she didn't have to stay with them.

"Are you going to rejoin him?" Yuna asked, bringing Harper from her thoughts.

"I was just thinking about that..." she looked to Vincent. His unwavering gaze told her what she knew it would: she was free to make her own choices. "No. I won't permanently rejoin him, but I would like to tell him that I'll be ok now. He's done a lot for me."

"Do you know where he will be?" Vincent asked, still using a low tone. Yuna glanced to Auron in worry that something was wrong with her Sir Valentine. Harper knew, though, that it was only the way Vincent was.

Harper nodded. "Mushroom Rock Gates...I think is what he'd said."

"OH!" Yuna exclaimed suddenly, startling Harper and Vincent. "That is where we are headed. You may travel with us until we get there, then decide what your final decision will be. If you wish, you may stay with us, as you know Sir Valentine."

Harper beamed, Vincent thought, at being this easily accepted by a group of almost-complete strangers...again. But at the same time he thought her smile was a bit too heart-felt looking to be real, and that she was about to have a disguised mental breakdown, letting nobody know that it ever occurred.

"Would you like to meet everyone?" Yuna asked, towing Harper with her by the upper arm whether or not she said yes. Auron followed them away, leaving Tidus and Vincent alone again.

Vincent turned to go back to his tent, but was halted by Tidus calling his name. He turned again to face him at an angle. "Yes?" came his low reply.

"I know you said you left when you and Harper were done talking..." Vincent waited patiently for him to go on; he knew the question, but wanted to see whether or not Tidus had the guts to ask it. He did. "Still...Nothing happened that shouldn't have, right?"

Vincent could have played that he didn't know what Tidus was asking, as he was beating around the bush, but decided not to. "No." The teenager visibly sighed. Why was he so concerned? Vincent decided that these were odd people, but no worse than what he had to live with back in Midgar. Perhaps, if there was no way to return home, Spira wouldn't be that horrible a place to stay. "No. Nothing happened. Nothing ever has." Vincent turned again, and was again stopped.

"Nothing happened? _Nothing?_ Not even a kiss?" The kid was persistent, Vincent had to give him that.

"...Maybe a little one."

"Little."

"..." Vincent smiled to himself and corrected: "Maybe a long one."

Note: I had fun writing that ending. R&R please!


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Disclaimer: No ownership is claimed here except for the plot that isn't the game's...and maybe those possible characters.

Note: The non-reviewedness of this story is really getting to me. And sorry I missed a usual update, but I had a good reason. See, the night before Saturday...I was up all night and slept Saturday afternoon from five to seven. Updating wasn't even in my mind untill Sunday. Here ya go, late, but it's here.

"That is Kimahri, Wakka, Lulu and Auron." She pointed to each in turn. "Everyone," faces were directed her way. "Harper will be joining us for a while." Turning back to Harper she asked, "Are you hungry?"

Harper took her eyes from Auron, who was simply standing there, watching. "No, thank you." Inwardly her heart collapsed as she greatly missed Cloud's obsession with food. He even gave up teasing her one time to go eat breakfast. Choking back a whimper, she realized for the first time that she was really attached to the people who had taken her in. Would she and Vincent ever...

"Are you alright?" Yuna had walked off almost as soon as Harper had declined her offer of food; Wakka stood before her now, as tall as Vincent.

Harper blinked, trying to figure something out. She didn't know what that something was though, and looked up at Wakka, giving him a broken smile she hoped passed as real. "Yep." Squinting her eyes shut, she smiled bigger and clasped her hands behind her back. "Just remembered something I had wanted to do in the shop. No big deal," she lied.

Wakka crossed his blitzball player arms and gave her a serious look as he considered her words. He didn't believe her, and he didn't believe he'd get the truth out of her, if she was anything like her companion, Vincent. Instead of badgering her, he simply asked, "You sure about that?"

Harper knew what he was doing. She hadn't pulled off the performance she had hoped to, so she admitted, "No, I'm not sure," gave him another half-hearted smile, and swung around to return to Vincent.

"What are we going to do when we run out of bullets?" she asked Vincent.

They sat against the warm face of a large boulder, away from the others ears and eyes. The sun was setting, bathing the horizon, and everything, in a pink and purple light. Puffy white clouds drifted on the winds, high in the atmosphere, their edges saturated by the same colors. Only their middles were the regular cloudy color, being darkened by tiny droplets of precipitation.

Vincent, who sat to Harper's left, took her hand in his. "You already know the sword," he commented, lacing his fingers through hers. "But how far is the next weapon's shop from here?"

Harper shook her head as if discarding the idea and gave his hand a squeeze. "Maybe Auron or Tidus would have an extra blade that they wouldn't mind my using. I have a feeling there won't be a chance to buy a sword, or anything, for a while. But what about you? You can't rely on Chaos all the time, can you?"

He bowed his head. Vincent couldn't think of anything. "No. I can't. I don't think materia will be worth anything here. I refuse to carry around a stuffed animal like Lulu does." That statement coaxed a laugh from the girl at his side. Her laughter lifted his spirits somewhat.

"No, that wouldn't do," Harper agreed. "Couldn't your gauntlet be outfitted as a weapon?"

Vincent uttered a throaty laugh and raised his left arm. Sunlight glinted off the tip of his thumb. He moved the fingers with expert ease, as if they were really fingers. He didn't know how it worked, how he could move fingers that weren't real, and not have to think about it. It was the one thing Shinra had done to him that he marveled at. Even though most of his left arm was crafted of metal, he said, "I'd rather no physical changes take place."

"I understand." She sighed, leaning her head against the rock. Vincent rubbed his thumb over the back of the hand he held. "We'll think of something, sooner or later."

"I'm sure we will."

Harper inched closer to him and put her head on his shoulder. In response Vincent traced the line of her jaw. She didn't mind the touch of the cold metal as, she assumed, others would. They were both tired, even though they had done nothing of great exertion over the course of the day. Tents were gutted and their contents packed away so that the only things left to pick up the next day were the tents themselves. Surprisingly enough, everything that had come out of the tents packed up rather nicely and ended up not being the huge amount they had thought it would.

"Do you miss Cloud?" Harper asked suddenly, the sun sinking lower.

A shudder went through his shoulder as Vincent laughed. "Oddly enough, I do. I miss everyone."

Harper's heart warmed at that. "That's good," she said, finally roused to a bit of happiness from some other source than Vincent's presence. "I didn't want to be the only one who did," she said finally.

"We will find a way home," he assured her in a distant tone. "We just don't know the path yet."

"Hm, I think we may already be on it, Vincent."

"What do you mean?"

"I think if we stay with these people, we may just find, or be led to, the way home. Isn't Tidus looking for the same thing with Zanarkand?"

"I see," Vincent agreed after a while. "That sounds like a plan."

"Maybe." Harper wasn't sure of anything at that moment, she only knew that she was watching the sun set at the end of an uneventful day. She was happy there, at Vincent's side, and he was happy to have her there.

"Would you grab that corner for me?" Yuna asked Vincent as he passed by.

Vincent passed a quick glance over her progress. "Have you never folded up a tent before?" The tent lay in a tangled heap on the ground in front of his feet. Yuna planted her hands on her hips. "Yes, I have. I just have a funny feeling. That's all."

Vincent bent to take the indicated corner and passed a glance over the summoner. "Feelings can betray you. But what kind of feeling?"

"Well," she said as she walked toward him to make the tent corners meet. "I can't help feeling like something is coming...I've never had this feeling before. Have you?"

"Many times." They folded the tent shortways.

"And...? How did those times turn out?"

Vincent absent mindedly kept on with folding as he recounted the times he'd had a feeling such as the one Yuna said she had then. "Ill, at first. In the end it worked out."

"All those times?" Yuna stood with the folded tent in her arms, ready to go, but she was curious.

Silently, Vincent recounted what he could, even the painful memories. Lucrecia and Hojo: Sephiroth's parents, depending on what one thought about the Jenova experiments. That had started out horribly. In the end, he had found Harper. As much as he hated to admit it, Harper was a wonderful product of an ill begun string of events. He nodded almost invisibly. "All." His reply was barely audible, for too many things were now running rampant in his mind. Not things about Lucrecia, but about Sephiroth. It wasn't that long ago... just how old could one consider Sephiroth, really?

"Sir Valentine?"

Vincent looked up. Yuna still stood there with compassionate eyes, and he avoided the implied inquiry. "Do you intend to continue to carry these tents with us?"

"No, of course not. When we're done with them, Lulu uses her magic to burn them. There's no way we could fold them as air tight as they originally come! Now they'd be way too bulky." With that she turned, sensing the tension crackle in the air around her newest guardian.

A plume of fire rose just above the tops of the few tents left standing, igniting Vincent's memory to the fact that his materia was probably useless in Spira, and he was eventually going to run out of ammunition. Maybe Lulu, the groups dark-mage, could teach him and Harper how to work this world's magic. As it turned out, Harper had had the same idea.

When he got to where the flame was, Harper was already standing next to Lulu, watching in awe as flame licked up the tent somehow suspended in the air. Each time the spell was cast, there was no green flash such as there would be were materia being used.

"Great minds think alike," Lulu said when she saw Vincent. He didn't reply. "We figured it would only be a little while until you showed up, too."

Vincent blinked and walked closer.

"I explained about everything I could," Harper explained. "Our materia is as useless as colored rocks in Spira."

"You tried it?" Vincent double checked.

She nodded in reply. "I tried summoning Ifrit...not even a puff of smoke resulted."

"She thought we should wait for you to arrive before we began today's 'lesson'," Lulu interrupted their conversation, not saying that Yuna had summoned Ifrit a few times. Vincent understood. She was going to teach them how to use magic, as he had thought they would need to. "Pay close attention: we don't have a lot of time for extensive training.

"You may already have enough 'streangth' to cast the spells effectively, but if not, then you'll just have to practice. You may have been magically 'strong' in Midgar, but perhaps not here. So don't push yourself. That can be a dangerous action: using what you don't even have can kill you. Also, how many times you can cast one or many diferant spells depends on your 'strength.' There comes a time, for me too, that you have to stop casting for a while to regain your 'strength.'"

Both Harper and Vincent blinked. The only thing deferant here was that you had to learn the spells instead of using materia. Everything about "strength" and stopping, except the "using what you don't have" part, were the same. What they were worried about was wether or not they had the "strength" needed for this.

Contrary to that simple fear, Harper was the first to speak up when Lulu had finished. "This should be a piece of cake."

Lulu looked to Vincent for his opinion. He nodded, "Let's get on with it, then."

The dark-mage nodded in turn and shepherded them into a circle in which she could speak to them easily. "We learn fire first so that you might help with today's, and future, camp cleanup."

The rest of that day, and there was a lot of it left, was spent with Lulu for Vincent and Harper. The two strangers had "amazing ability", even when stood against the mage herself. Harper, not suprising Vincent (for he knew her father had a knack for flames), managed to master the first fire spell almost instantly once she knew the mechanics of it. Vincent wasn't far behind. After they had both got that one down and helped with a fair share of tents, they moved on to the next most useful spell, water. That was an element completely alien to both Vincent and Harper and took longer to handle. Four elements were learned in that one day. Of course, "they were only the most basic ones and anyone could do it."

Lulu spent only a few minutes describing the diferant levels of spells possible to learn. It had taken her a while to get as far as she said she was, and she still had more to conquer.

At the end of the day, Lulu seemed more bored than before, and Vincent and Harper felt as though they had accomplished a great something, however little they showed that feeling. Everyone sat around the last campfire they would have at that spot.

"Yuna," Harper sat next to the summoner. Wakka was to her left. Vincent got stuck by Tidus and Auron; Kimahri was to Yuna's right. "Where are we going?" She knew that they would be on the Mushroom Rock road, and had exited the Mi'ihen Highroad, but after that?

High Summoner Yuna watched the fire's flames dance as she took on the visage of solemnity, gripping her staff, which lay across her knees. "After we reach Mushroom Rock, we will enter the Djose Highroad, and on it make our way to the temple at Djose, where I will speak to the Fayth." That confused Harper since no one had explained Yuna's pilgrimage in great detail, but she didn't say so. "After that, we'll continue to the moonflow, where we will have to cross a lake by way of shoopuf, to Guadosalam, home—"

"Seymore's home," Harper finished for her. It wasn't hard to infer from the place's name. Yuna nodded. "Great...What's a shoopuf?"

"A donation toward Operation Mi'ihen?" Harper heard Yuna ask the guard, a Crusader. Since they had started out that morning Harper had kept an eye out for Seymour and his guardians, but hadn't seen them. Yet here she was at the gates of Mushroom Rock, and Seymour wasn't there. Another summoner had been though. Her name was Dona and, from what Harper had seen, she was a real pain. Rude too.

Auron had given Harper his katana, which she handled with ease, to his complete surprise. He even admitted that he was surprised. Someone so skilled with firearms normally isn't so skilled with a blade. At least, he thought so. Harper had said that it just goes to show him that not all things are as they seem. With her new katana, she proceded to teach Vincent how to use a sword efectivly before he ran out of shots. He had found out that he rather like swordsmanship, and they decided that that would be his new weapon. A sword. As with the magic, he was a fast learner.

Ahead, Yuna settled on donating 1000 Gil to the Crusader's cause. What it was, Harper didn't pay attention to, but she knew that they weren't going to get past this person. Just as Summoner Dona didn't. Yuna thought so too, and turned her party around to return to Rin's Travel Agency and come up with a new plan.

They were just turning around when the fine hairs at the base of Harper's neck stood straight. Something, or someone, was coming from the opposite direction.

Two Guado were first, and behind them followed the master of Yevon, Seymour Guado.

Yuna and Harper were the first to speak, doing so at the same time...

"Maester Seymour!" Yuna bowed as she addressed the man in a reverant tone.

"Seymour!" Harper took a quick step that put her level with Yuna as she greeted her friend.

As he approached, Seymour stepped infront of his guardians and took in the group now before him. "High Summoner Yuna," he inclined his head in greeting. "...and... Harper?" She nodded at her name, unsure of what to do. Harper was happy to see him again, at last. "What happened? I thought you would come back, the night you left."

"When I left, I thought I was going to, too." Harper inched closer to him. "But I found out I was still missing a part of myself," she turned and indicated Vincent, who stood watching silently. "To sum it all up...I was missing the entirety of Vincent and three months. All of which he spent hunting me down to rescue me from danger I didn't know I was in. I was in danger because I was with my 'brothers.' They idolized my father and wanted another Sephiroth...or something like that..."

Seymour held up his hand, silencing her. "Don't explain. You never had to stay with us. You have a true companion, it would seem, with Vincent," his blue eyes moved to gently wash over Vincent. "I'm happy that you have found a place where you may be comfortable."

Harper blushed. Seymour was like Cloud in one way: it seemed he cared for others, not only himself. "Thank you, for everything," was all she could manage over the onslaught of a wave of homesickness. She didn't see the maester of Yevon before her, but Cloud. Seymour had taken her in, just as Cloud had, without asking much. She saw around her her old room on the day she found out about Sephiroth being her father, and a few weeks later when she wrote the note to Cloud that she was leaving with Kadaj. She had told him thank you then. Without thinking, she gave "Cloud" a gentle hug before returning to Vincent's side. Only after did she remember it was Seymour, and the world of Spira replaced her room in Midgar.

"You're welcome," Seymour replied. Then his attention moved to Yuna and their predicament. "What is this?"

"We are unable to proceed, Maester." Yuna answered. "Civilians, even summoners, aren't allowed past this point. They tell me that it is becoming too dangerous."

"Oh?" Maester Seymour took long strides to reach the gaurds. After speaking with them for a moment he turned back to the group watching him. He waved a hand toward the road beyond the gates, telling them that they were now permitted to pass.

Once through the gateway, Yuna told Maester Seymour "thank you." The two groups traveled side by side for a few moments, courtesies never ceasing to come from the summoner.

Note: Took my wracking my brain for hours to write this one. And an edit... Can anyone tell from my writing wether I'm a boy or girl? Just a random question. Good day all!


	6. Chapter 6

Disclaimer: Again...I don't own, or want to for that matter, the game Final Fantasy VII or Final Fantasy X. :) I will say...that I do claim to be the creator of the ...subplot...? ...to this particular story. Please don't use my orginal char.s unless you ask and I say you can.

Chapter 6

Lulu attacked with her strongest magic, fira, while Vincent unloaded bullets into the creature's left arm and Harper bit at the same arm with the katana Sir Auron had given her. All three fighters were at their wits end: the arms of the sinspawn had regenerated thrice and, they all had the feeling, not long after they were destroyed a fourth time they would come back.

The machina in the field had slowed Sin's attack, and even kept him from running dry on the shore of the beach they were all now on, but what had drawn Sin in the first place had broken free. Everything had gone totally wrong in only a few moments. The amassed beasts now roamed everywhere. The few others who were left were taking care of those while the summoner's party took care of the new arrival: the sinspawn. It had come up on shore, sent by Sin.

Vincent's gun clicked and he checked it instantly. Harper noticed his halt and called for Wakka, who could hit the troublesome head. Vincent was out of ammunition, and hadn't acquired a sword of his own yet; his magic would not be able to lend a great hand in the spawn's defeat. As Wakka came up he gave Vincent a shoulder pat and the dark man retreated. Being out of bullets, he was out of the fight for good, unless he decided Chaos was a good option...or any of the other beasts he held inside him.

Lulu was the next to leave the party, for she was low on "strength" and needed to rest. The party had forgotten to stock up on items and whatnot before they headed into this mess. Of course, Harper was next. She left, totally exhausted, and collapsed onto the ground beside a calm Vincent. He wasn't a bit tired. Cloud had kept him in shape with all the missions they went on together. She made a mental note, just before she somehow fell asleep, to stay in better condition. Truthfully, even though he strove to not show it, Vincent was as tired as the woman on the ground next to him. He lay down also, and not long after that, was as asleep as he would allow himself to be.

Vincent woke to see Wakka standing over him, arms crossed. He looked as though he were trying to solve a puzzle. "How can you two sleep through all that?" he asked.

Rolling over, Vincent found Harper. He hadn't actually planned to fall asleep, let alone let himself sleep next to her. Tidus was already paying enough attention to them. Inwardly groaning, he pushed himself up. "It wasn't the plan."

"What does it matter? He was out of shot anyway," a sleepy sounding Harper commented. She rose, zombie-like, and massaged her neck.

Wakka just shrugged and sort of changed the topic. "Sleep well anyway?"

Harper stopped rubbing, giving him a blank look. "No."

He started to say something, but Vincent cut him off with a question of his own. "What's happened?"

Wide eyed, Wakka stared for a minute before answering. "Well, we beat the spawn," he broke off to rub the back of his head, "but then we had to do it again."

"Again," Harper repeated.

"Sephiroth," Vincent muttered to himself.

"...Sure," Wakka said slowly, unsure of what else to say. "Good thin Maester Seymour helped out."

"You think we'll have to do it again?" Harper asked.

"Nah," Wakka flashed what both guessed would have been his winning smile...if the Aurochs would ever win... and re-crossed his arms. "He's gone for good this time." With that he turned and headed away.

Once Harper figured there was no one else around she looked up at Vincent, who had stood. "Why'd you say that?" She received a blank look before quoting, "'Sephiroth.'"

A pained look flared in Vincent's eyes. Something was wrong, but Harper didn't know what it was. "I meant to say that Sephiroth regenerated also, during that last battle." He looked to her eyes and admitted, "I wasn't thinking."

_Not thinking? _Harper thought, suspicion confirmed. "Vincent?"

"I'm sorry," he looked away, to the distant horizon where Sin had appeared. "I have a lot on my mind," he amended and walked off, leaving Harper very confused and even more worried.

After a while everyone met on a rise overlooking the ocean. Vincent was there when Harper arrived, dragged along by Wakka. He had set himself apart, but within range of hearing the others. Yuna wasn't there. Tidus pointed to a dancing speck on a clear strip of sand and said, "People die, and Yuna dances." What he meant, neither Harper nor Vincent knew exactly. Soon they were on the Djose Highroad, and would be at the Djose Temple the following day.

The trip down the Djose Highroad was rougher than the Mi'ihen Highroad. The party actually encountered more creatures, the most annoying of which were the flying bugs, flying things in general, and (as Harper said) the mutant mushrooms. The ground animals were easily taken down when three swordsmen were on the field. Vincent's weapon, which he had purchased from O'aka before the tragedy at Mushroom Rock, worked especially well on the many bunyip crossed.

Harper sighed in relief when finally they made it to the temple and saw the inn. "Finally, a real bed and bath. I hope there's hot breakfast."

Note: Good? Tell me in a review... runs


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7 Core Temperature

Disclaimer: I only own plot to story and Harper and...Well you'll know when you see her.

Note: Sorry about the lateness of me for the past couple chapters. Happens I actually had a life on those weekends. Great huh?

Vincent watched closely the people around him. He was watching their mannerisms to see what the feelings were between groups. Everyone in the Djose area seemed at ease, even comfortable, with High Summoner Yuna. Auron had said they wouldn't be long stuck outside and that they would enter the Cloister of Trials as soon as possible. Vincent didn't know what that meant. Tidus said he wasn't really supposed to go in, but that he always did anyway.

As everyone proceeded toward the inner sanctum, Vincent decided he and Harper should probably stay away from this unknown factor. Harper came up and told him she had decided the same thing.

The entrance door opened with a dilapidated swish and in walked three men. "High Summoner Yuna?" the one wearing the richly colored robe said. His hair was brown, pulled back into a pony-tail which let his bangs fall to the sides of his face and, in spite of the loud colors of his clothing, he gave off a general feeling of humbleness. "I am summoner Isaaru...I have some news."

The news was that summoners on their pilgrimage had been disappearing, a fact that hardly unsettled the group. Yuna's guardians, or at least the original five, were as confident in their work as Vincent had been when he was a Turk...but then...those were days he did not miss.

Isaaru and Yuna's conversation was brief, as though Isaaru knew exactly why Yuna was there, and the six people disappeared into the puzzle called the Cloister of Trials.

The front room was instantly quiet after the door to the trial closed. Vincent made his way over to a wall and sat, waiting for their return. Harper jumped at the opportunity, sitting down (close, but not as close as she'd like) beside him. "Vincent?" He didn't answer, but she knew she had his attention. "What's wrong?" she asked, then chanced a glance at him. His eyes were closed.

For a while nothing came from him and Harper thought maybe he was asleep. She brought her knees up to her chest and wrapped her arms around them, resting her head on her knees. "It's just old memories and past fears which I didn't expect to see again," came the sudden reply from the again mysterious man beside her. He received a small noise to urge him on. Vincent opened his eyes and turned them on her without moving his head. "I'm not quite ready to talk about anything like that."

Harper's other question was killing her. "Are we ok?" she blurted.

Now Vincent turned to her with an extremely serious gaze, yet it bore that softness he seemed to have only for her. "If we aren't, it is I. You ..."

"Haven't done anything?" Harper picked up. She wasn't inexperienced: she _had_ been with other men before. They all said the same thing. "Yeah. I know."

Vincent knew sarcasm when he heard it, so he didn't say "good." Instead he tried to go on, "Harper...please..."

"Please don't lie to me."

Vincent's mouth closed almost with a snap. "I'm...not. Please, believe me." To him his voice sounded as if her were ready to kneel before her and plead with her. His insides twisting while her face was ice, for she thought he was simply speaking.

Not one of the few others ever said that part to her, though. Harper forced herself to calm down and convince herself that he was telling the truth. He wouldn't have spent three months chasing after her in the name of safety and love if he didn't think their relationship would work out. He wouldn't have gone after her at all. Vincent spoke the truth, when he did speak. She sighed audibly and relaxed against the wall. "I'm sorry. I'm just..." she sighed again. "It's been a great thing with us so far, I'd hate to lose it because of anything," done explaining, she gave him a soft smile.

"I know," he replied, gently taking her hand and giving it a reassuring clench. "Me too."

Their eyes met for the first time since the incident at Mushroom Rock. Something...a haunted look, _the_ haunted look, the one that Shinra had given him, was back in Vincent's deep red eyes. "Have you slept at all lately?"

He looked away as if shamed by his answer. "No. Not since the beach."

"I wish I could help, you know."

"I do."

For a while they both thought it was time for the summoner and her guardians to come back, but when they didn't Harper continued. "Would it help if I sat with you at night? We wouldn't have to say anything...just for the company..."

Vincent started to laugh lowly, but stopped when even the lowness echoed in the large room. "Last night I laid in bed for a long time thinking about asking you to take a walk outside with me. I didn't because you were asleep."

She giggled just a little bit. "I stayed awake for a long time just wondering if you were going to get any sleep."

He smiled at the irony of the previous night. "Well. I think I would like the company...they're back."

Harper looked up from the floor in front of her feet and to the door that the party had gone through. The guardians emerged first: Wakka and Auron, Tidus and Lulu, then Kimahri behind Yuna who was looking quite a bit more than exhausted.

Vincent stood, and in his wake Harper did too. One glance at Yuna told them both something, but only Harper was bold enough to ask, "Bedtime?"

Auron nodded and left the temple. The others all followed. As it turned out, it was late in the evening, not the morning (for they had entered in the morning and it seemed to not have taken that long to complete the trials and whatever else lay behind that door). Everyone took time to clean up before hitting the hay. Shower order was oldest first. Auron, then Vincent; Harper and Lulu had to flip a coin, then Wakka...and so on. Everyone said Yuna should go first, even Vincent put in his two cents in favor of that, but she just wanted to rest for a while.

Eventually, everyone ended up back in their own room, for a while. Three hours after all the lights were turned off, the door to Vincent and Auron's room creaked open as one of them slipped out and padded down the hall to Lulu and Harper's room. He knocked as softly as he could. A few seconds later, Harper was at the door. "Hey, Vin...Auron?"

"Expecting someone else?" Auron asked, with maybe a touch of admonishment to the question. He stood before her in the dimly lit hallway in an orange/red shirt, usual black pants, and socks.

"Yeah..." Harper opened the door wider and straitened her lopsided t-shirt. She actually liked sleep attire and was in baggy grey pants and, as mentioned, a T-shirt that happened to be green. "What's up?"

Auron blinked at her for a moment. "Valentine isn't in bed. He isn't in there, is he?"

"Eh...no..." Harper glanced behind her just to make sure he wasn't. "You sure he's not in there?"

"I'm positive."

Harper sighed, "Ok. You go back to sleep, I'll go look for him." She turned and disappeared behind the door muttering "I told him to come get me if he couldn't sleep." Auron stood alone in the hall for a few minutes while Harper got herself in order. She emerged fully dressed: boots, black pants, and black second-skin like tank top. All she lacked was her sword and guns.

Even though Auron was older and a grown, respectable man... he couldn't help the way his eyes somehow kept ending up where they shouldn't in those few seconds she stood before him saying, "Like I said...I'll go look for him." With that, she turned and walked away.

The night air was chilly. A faint glow came from the temple in the distance. Before her was the first bridge one had to cross before entering the Djose temple area. An echo of stones being flipped into the water reached Harper's ears. "Vincent?" When there was no answer she began making her way to the underside of the bridge. There were large flat stones which rose above the level of the water and had many worn pebbles scattered around the edges and undersides of the overlapping rocks. Vincent sat on the ledge-like rock lowest to the water. He was in the new clothes Yuna had made him get: dark, baggy pants and a white t-shirt. It was an odd site when all he ever wore was the black pants and shirt and cloak. His hair was even let down. "Vincent?" He turned his face to her, then flipped another stone into the murky depths and turned away.

"I couldn't sleep."

Harper blinked in a slight confusion and began making her way toward him. "But...we agreed that you could come get me if you couldn't... Why didn't you?"

"I know..." Vincent sat down cross-legged and flipped another stone. "...and I don't know." That was his answer to her question. "I guess...I just didn't want to wake you; I knew for a fact that you were asleep... Lulu told me."

"Oh..." Harper bent at the waist and picked up a pebble shaped for skipping. She threw it and watched as it skipped three, four, five times before she sat down beside Vincent. "So you did come."

He nodded, "I did. She said you were sleeping well. I didn't insist."

"Well... Even if you had," she laughed then, relieved that she had been heard during that conversation. "I don't think Lu would have done anything but say again that I was asleep and shut the door in your face..."

That coaxed a laugh from Vincent. Harper was happy she was the one who could get him to laugh, genuinely laugh. "Probably." For a while no one said anything. Then, "It surprises me that, after an entire day of doing nothing, that you would be able to sleep."

"Well..."

"What woke you?"

"...Oh," Harper wasn't sure what he would say to the fact that Auron woke her up, and where his eye had been. She knew she'd feel guilty if she didn't tell Vincent that, so he could know Auron. At least, a little bit. To know that Auron was just like any other person. "Auron did. He said he woke up and you weren't there. I thought it was you at the door... Vincent...he's just a normal person...like Cid..." So she didn't say exactly what had happened, she told him what she thought was important.

"Cid...?"

"...Eheh..." Harper faltered for a moment. "Bad example... Do you mind if I sit with you now?"

"No. Please stay."

Harper nodded and crossed her legs, putting her hands on the ground behind her to help steady her balance. The water shimmered in the moonlight as they sat in silence, Vincent with his thoughts, no doubt, and Harper with her lack of thought because she was tired. Suddenly something came to mind for her. "You know, for the longest time when I first saw you, I was sure that you hated every living thing." She kept looking at the dark water as it licked at the rocks edge, even as Vincent looked at her with a look of surprise and confusion. Then she nodded. "Yep."

"Why?" Vincent was still facing her.

"Well, it seemed you never spoke to anyone except maybe your thoughts. For a few days I thought maybe you didn't even _have_ a voice." Harper turned her head and grinned at him. "I think that was the stupidest thing I ever thought about you."

"That I hated everything, or that I couldn't speak?"

"Mmm...both. But mostly that you hated everything. Not long after I made that judgment I figured out that you in fact love almost everything, yet resent yourself."

Vincent laughed at the description he was being given for himself, but at the same time, he knew she was right. Lately he'd been more at ease, but back then... and now... "You're right."

Harper grinned at him, teeth white in the moonlight.

After that, neither spoke for a while. Mainly because something weird was going on in the water. In the space lighted by the moon the water bubbled up, climbing at its highest to at least 5 feet. The coulomb of bubbling water moved toward the shore just a little distance from the pair. When the water receded there stood a girl, or a woman to be more exact.

She was clothed in light-green and light-purple clothes; she had blue-ish hair that reached her knees in the back and was angled away from her face. It had a slight curl to it.

For a moment the new person just stood there, looking at Harper and Vincent as if they were the intruders. Then...she simply collapsed.


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8:**

**The woman stood before them, looking at them as if they were the intruders. Her hair was a bluish grey, and oddly—because she had just come from the water—she wore an outfit of leather. Her eyes were a dim purple that somehow didn't stand out in horrible contrast to her hair and fair complexion. The look she was giving Harper and Vincent was nothing if not … electric. **

**But the withering look didn't last long: it soon turned to one of utter confusion. "Hello?" she ventured, hoping that these strangers spoke her language.**

**Harper burst into laughter while Vincent just looked on.**

"**Where am I?"**

"**Spira…" Harper's laughter came to an abrupt halt when she recognized the same tone she'd had when she'd shown up there. _Man, Spira is pretty fond of abducting people, isn't it?_ she thought to herself as she stood up. "Lost are you?"**

**The woman's face lit up, contrary to what she said, "Very!"**

**The two opposites threw Harper off, but Vincent was quick to understand. "You don't understand why we speak the same language, or how you got here, do you?"**

"**Notta bit! I'm just happy you do and that I don't seem to have intruded on some kind of trouble…have I?" She suddenly looked very worried about the suggested intrusion.**

"**No, no trouble here," Harper assured her, now that she understood. "Where are you from?"**

"**Oh…well…I don't think you'd—"**

"**DON'T. Say. That," Harper cut her off. "We'll believe anything you say. The same thing happened to us…I think." She got a stare in reply. "Come on then." When the other still didn't speak up… "Fine. You want us to go first?"**

**The stranger nodded.**

"**All right, but first, what's you name?" Vincent asked.**

"**Yx!" she chimed. **

**(A/N) Dearys…that's pronounced short i and the normal x sound. … like… Icks. Lol.**

**Haper told an abbreviated form of her story, and then Vincent his. Yx then opened up and spilled out that she didn't really know where she was from, only that her companion had left. Her world was of beasts and lightning. When her companion left, she followed, and "this 'Spira' is where I was led…or where I followed him to," she explained. Finally she said that it felt as if she had just woken up from a lifetime of sleep… Vincent in turn said that he understood.**

"**So…who knows what we do next?" Yx asked, seeming very comfortable with them after telling her story, and listening to theirs.**

"**Well…I'd like to say that you could stay with us, but … that's up to Auron and Yuna right?" Harper asked Vincent.**

**He only nodded.**

"**You two aren't on the best terms, huh?" Yx guessed.**

"**No."**

**It was almost daylight when the three finally made their way back to the inn and woke Auron, who didn't like the fact that this was the third person "from a different world." To him it was beginning to seem a little too much like a conspiracy. What was it Isaaru had said about summoners? They were vanishing on their pilgrimages? "Of course," he said when everyone was done talking. "We'll have to talk to Yuna. She's the one who decides who comes and who doesn't."**

**Feeling they had Yx's spot assured, Harper and Vincent took this as Auron's approval and left. Yx ended up staying with Harper and Lulu, who was thankfully asleep when the two girls entered.**

**Only a few hours later Auron was again at their door. He had already told Yuna what Harper and Vincent and Yx had said in the night, and she was prepared to meet Yx. Harper hoped everything would work out as she and Yx walked down the hall behind Auron, but then… that would be too easy, wouldn't it?**

**Yx stopped dead in her tracks when she first laid eyes on the High Summoner. "Who…are you?" she asked Yuna.**

"**I am High Summoner Yuna, you must be Yx," she introduced herself and motioned for Yx to have a seat.**

"**High…Summoner…Yuna?" Yx repeated in question form as she sat across from Yuna.**

**Yuna nodded.**

"…**but…"**

"**Yes?"**

**Yx's mood changed. "Then why do I recognize you as though I've spent my entire life with you before?"**

**Yuna was taken back by that, and she admitted, "I…I don't know."**

**Yx narrowed her eyes at the summoner. "Your name is Yuna, not Ixion?"**

**Everyone jumped at Ixion's name. "Why…I know Ixion!" Yuna exclaimed. "He is an Aeon I have just acquired from the Fayth! The thunder Aeon… to be… what's wrong?"**

"**It's… Ixion, he was my companion, now I fear I'll never see him again." Yx began studying the fibers of the couch she was seated on. "You see…I don't know much of anything about where I'm from, and I suppose that's because I was too preoccupied with Ixion…but I've heard that when someone goes to a place called "chamber of the Fayth" one of the many companions always…or almost always…gets called away, to war… or something. I've never heard of any ever returning to his home…"**

**No one said anything. So this girl was from the realm of the Aeons…? That was something the original party could grasp at least a little bit easier than taking in Harper and Valentine's stories. This was also more believable, in their eyes.**

"**Please…if you have my Ixion with you…You MUST let me accompany you!"**

**A moment passed before Auron spoke up, "Do you know where we are go—"**

"**I DON'T CARE!" Yx exploded, "Please…I have to be with Ixion…you see…it's rumored that when an Aeon leaves…his companion dies out in a short while…from heart-ache." She raised her eyes to Yuna and continued pleading silently until…**

**Yuna smiled. "You are welcome to travel with us."**


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter Nueve (9)

Throughout the following days the group went through a few challenges together. Yx questioned everything, and spoke her mind no matter the consequences, which were few, except for a few harsh words of rebuke from Auron from time to time.

They took the Moonflow in short time, considering the battle with the Extractor to rescue Yuna and their meeting up with Rikku. Tidus, it seemed, already knew the Al Bhed girl. Encounters with enemies were even shorter with Rikku on their side when they involved machinery, as she knew most of the machina both inside and out.

Guadosalam was a test for everyone, even those who knew little of what was going on and had few strong feelings for the quest. Harper and Vincent valued life but knew little of Spira's politics or what the rest of the group wanted. To Harper, Seymour was becoming more and more of a problem as she heard and saw more of him. His proposal to Yuna was disturbing, even to Harper though, for some reason she could somehow picture the two being happily wed in the future. When she realized what she was thinking, she always received a shudder as she recalled Kadaj… Who could ever forget him and his darling brothers?

While in Guadosalam, the company visited the Farplane as was planned. Harper, Vincent, and Yx entered too, though no one knew if they would get anything out of the experience. Auron stayed behind, not giving any explanation that could be understood. Vincent stood by and watched as Harper talked with Sephiroth. How that was possible…well… "The rules…" Sephiroth was not allowed to divulge that secret; he barely gave Vincent a passing glance even though he knew very well who he was. It was the same for Vincent as well. He didn't care what Sephiroth was doing here, only for Harper's happiness…and she was quite happy to speak to her father again. Still…she called him Sephiroth out of sheer habit… or was she still reluctant to accept him as her father?

Vincent seemed to have come out of whatever state of depression he was in and went back to being his old self. Part of that was staying in-doors all night, instead of wandering off whenever he felt like it. He didn't talk about what had happened in his mind, and in turn no one asked. When in the Farplane, as Sephiroth mentioned the rules he was then abiding by, he wondered if he used that as an excuse to avoid the fact that he just didn't know. Of course, Vincent didn't know if that was the case or not. It was only a thought that when thought about, made sense. Briefly he wondered why Lucrecia hadn't come to see him, but he dismissed it and instead paid more attention to Sephiroth and Harper's conversation, which was headed in the direction of "I'm sorry about everything I did a few years back…" "You've told me that already." "I suppose I'm out of things to really talk about if I'm repeating myself, then." Altogether not that interesting.

Tidus talked to Yuna for a while, then they left and Yuna went off to make her decision about Seymour.

Upon leaving Guadosalam they entered the Thunder Plains, where Yx felt right at home and Rikku…almost left the company for fear of thunder. She later said, at the travel agency, that her brother had once misdirected a thunder spell and hit her instead of the creature attacking her. Apparently, that was a traumatic experience for her in her childhood. Yuna disappeared down a hall…and Tidus followed her. Wakka, who had gone before them to his own room, later came out rather unhappily dragging Tidus with him…by the ear, it looked. Finally they left the agency and continued north to Macalania.

Yx stood a short distance away while watching skeptically as a few of the others chased butterflies around in the woods surrounding Macalania. Even Vincent seemed to be enjoying himself as he and Harper let a particularly friendly insect flit around on their fingers, stop, stretch its wings once, then return to the other's hand for the same routine.

Tidus had gone off a while ago to look for Yuna, and when she, he, and Kimahri had returned, they continued on to Lake Macalania. There they battled Rikku's fellow Al Bhed, the Crawler, and the Negator before finally making it to the icy temple of Macalania. Upon entering the Cloister of Trials, those there called out for backup-if-needed people…for there stood Maester Seymour.

Seymour's aeon, Anima, in the end called Shiva forth. Shiva was the very aeon Yuna was there to obtain, but she completed the cloister anyway…after the battle. It lasted for what seemed like years. It wasn't entirely too hard to figure out that the guardians of Seymour had to go before any real damage could be done: they only kept healing each other and attacking their attackers. Once they were out of the battle's picture for good, things got sticky between Shiva and Anima, who fought for another seeming number of years. In the end though, the High Summoner's party prevailed, completed the trial as said, and exited the cloister…only to have another surprise rained upon them.

Va.

She fell from a momentary gap between worlds, aeon and human, in the ceiling. Apparently she was Shiva's companion, as Yx was Ixion's; and yet, Yx and Va knew nothing of each other. They were complete strangers.

All of that was determined later though, as just after Va's humpty-dumpty act, they all were forced to run for their lives while they were chased out of Macalania by numerous Guado. When they reached Lake Macalania again, everyone thought they were safe and began conversing…until a great blue beast and two Guado showed up on the crest of a hill of snow and yet another battle ensued, the ending of which landed them beneath the ice of the lake.

The hot sun beat down on her, melting her, it felt like. It was the heat that woke her in the first place, but what was worse was that she woke with a cactuar staring her in the face.

Va immediately jumped to her feet and tried to freeze the alien thing, only to find that she was as devoid of water as the sand upon which she stood. With her movement she scared the cactuar; it went running and soon disappeared in the vast yellowness of the Sanubia Desert.

She was alone. Not one of the others was to be seen, and there was no answer when she called out. Running a hand through her black hair and shaking some of the snad out of it, she scanned the dunes with her violet eyes. There was no telling if there was an oasis anywhere near her, or even if one was to be found. There was also no route to determine, and no direction to go in. Not even the spire of a tower, or the hum of a busy city was to be found. Va was utterly alone in the wilderness.

_Not so bad, _she thought. _It's not so unlike home… but I'm going to melt eventually… WATER…_

"Want something to drink?"

Va turned around silently, not expecting anyone to really be there behind her. Some how, she knew the tricks heat could play on the mind.

But there was Tidus, looking a little bit wet. He was holding a canteen full of water.

"What?"

Tidus retracted his arm and the water. "You seen anyone else?"

"No…" Va couldn't help looking hopefully at the canteen.

He re-offered it to her. "There's an oasis just… over a dune somewhere."

When Va had stilled the worst of her thirst she again looked around. "I don't see anything."

"It's just a little thing. Hardly any trees… a low outcropping of rocks… and water."

Va nodded that she understood. "Do you have any idea as to what to do?"

"…" Tidus shook his head. "Only just to pick a direction, and walk. Maybe we'll bump into someone."

For a moment Va wanted to say, "what makes you think I'm going with you?" but then reconsidered the situation.

The two new nomads decided to keep the sun to their right until noon, when they would keep it to their left. Hopefully that would keep them from getting more lost, or stranded in the middle of the desert.


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

A/N: sorry about the last chapter guys…I thought it was a great idea…but maybe not. Saving time isn't always the best way to do something, but I didn't really have anything good written for the parts I kind of just summarized. This chapter too is probably going to be short-ish. Again, sorry. Honestly I'm kind of ready to just be finished with it… mostly so I can go on to the next in the series… I think. (enter long amount of time---later) Sorry, but I think I'm going to skip a lot or mention it briefly…and this _will_ be the last chapter.

At mid-day Va and Tidus came upon a great winged thing, called a zu. They were hard put to stay alive, the battle being more of a challenge than was welcome at that moment, but from out of thin air came Auron to save them. Lulu showed up not long after he did, casting bio to poison the overgrown bird. After that, the party decided to head north, where they ran into Wakka. Eventually, they were all together again, and night was closing in.

"I have good news though!" Rikku announced. Heads ripped in her direction. "But you all have to promise you won't tell ANYONE about it." Naturally everyone agreed. "There is a place we can go that's not far from here…but I can't get there at night."

"What is it?" Tidus asked.

"Home," was the answer. "But like I said, I can't get us there right now…"

"So we're stuck out here in the middle of nowhere," put in Yx.

"Yes," Auron confirmed. "And we'll have to conserve tents." Yx groaned at that; Va almost half-sighed; Vincent nodded faintly, and Harper glanced at him. For a while it had seemed that he had gotten out of whatever ditch he had dug for himself, but then…she wasn't so sure of herself.

The sleeping arrangements were this: Tidus roomed with Wakka; Yuna with Lulu; Yx, Va, and Rikku all somehow fit in one tent; Auron and Kimahri; and finally Vincent and Harper. They had all pulled names out of an empty item bag…and that's what the outcomes were. Everyone thought that maybe, somehow, Vincent and Harper's situation could be changed; but in the end everyone figured it would be fine. After all, they didn't seem like the type to get into any kind of trouble…Though it wasn't a reassuring thing to have them put in their own two cents about how it wasn't a good idea.

But the tents were pitched before night had truly fallen, the temperature plummeted, and people were thankful there were extra blankets. Harper and Vincent set up their sleeping palates close together for warmth during the night and lay down to go to bed.

…Neither could sleep. Vincent was drowning in his ditch again, and Harper somehow knew that. "Vincent?" Harper rolled over. "Are you—"

"No." He was little more than a black lump against the black shadows of the night.

She scooted closer, not wanting to have to raise her voice even a little: the dead desert air carried a sound. Other people weren't insomniacs. "What's the matter?" she asked as she laid a hand on his shoulder.

His human hand came up and brushed hers off, not rudely. "Please. Don't touch me." Through the inches that separated hem, both could feel the others heat. Vincent was warmer than Harper. He rolled to his other side to face her, and put a hand before himself to help balance.

"Did I…" she in turn turned over and lay back down, trying to get him to hold her in a hug-like manner. Vincent seemed distant, faint, when he was in this…depression. Perhaps not on purpose, still…

She felt a hand between her shoulder blades; it was shaking. She was being pushed away. She wanted to be held, to be reassured, yet she was being pushed away by the one person who could do such. "Vin..." Harper's voice cracked.

"Please, don't…" he said as he turned down his covers. There were clinks as he pulled on his metal shoes. "Right now, I can't…"

Harper called on the strength she knew rested in her limbs and stood in front of Vincent with the exit behind her. Her face was an iron mask void of emotion. "If anyone's leaving here, it'll be me." She left unsaid that she had long ago refused to be walked out on, by anyone. Vincent Valentine wasn't the first man to come into her life.

He just looked at her with the same sorrow that was in his eyes as was in his voice. Vincent knew, somehow, exactly what she was doing. He put a hand on her shoulder, moving her easily with a gentle touch, guiding her back the few steps she had taken from her bed-mat. "It's not you. You've done nothing wrong." He knew even before he said it that it was such a clichéd phrase that she probably wouldn't believe it.

He was right. In Harper's mind, those few words only solidified her fears.

But he continued before he left. "Things _will_ be alright."

The door flapped shut behind him. Harper was utterly alone in the tent, and in her heart. As she lay back down to snatch whatever precious, fleeting sleep she could she felt the bedding to her left. Vincent's warmth was still there, but wouldn't be for long, she knew. Harper stared with watery eyes for a long time at that small remnant, then switched her gaze to the door. Her tears burst forth then and she tried futilely to swipe them away with her fingers. More replaced those.

She had wanted to be held, hugged, but she had been pushed away by the one she loved—the only one who could hold, hug, and reassure her.

Harper woke in the morning as the sun came up, and with it the temperature. She didn't remember falling asleep, but knew she had cried her way there. She wasn't ready to let go of the one thing in her life that made even the littlest bit of sense. A small sound behind her startled her. "Waky waky!" It was Yx.

"Ah!" Harper jumped nearly out of her skin. "What are you doing in here!??"

"I was told to wake you up!" Yx explained rapidly.

"Great." She had thought it was Vincent. "I'm coming." Yx left in a hurry to do … something. Harper pried herself from under the covers and began packing up the few belongings. All of Vincent's stuff was gone already.

There were battles at Home which were easily won. Shortly after that mess was cleaned up, Cid—Rikku's uncle—resurrected his airship. (Harper and Vincent shared a brief look that said "Cid Highwind…") On-board they encountered the Evrae. That was a fierce battle that took most of everyone's strength. Then it was on to Bevelle to crash Seymour's wedding plans. Yuna gave everyone a fright when she threw herself over the edge of Bevelle Temple's roof, only to be caught by Valefor. A run-in with Seymour almost proved fatal, until Yuna figured out that casting _reflect _on Mortibody while attacking Seymour did the trick.

The stay in the Calm Lands, which was actually teeming with enemies, was long and rather uneventful. Tidus decided to collect all the beasties for the monster arena. After that nonsense was over, it was on to Mt. Gagazet. On the way up the pass, the party ran into Biran and Yenke—two Ronso who knew Kimahri, but didn't favor him—and Kimahri ended up in a long battle with the two. The rest of Gagazet was a challenge with four sparks of good: 20,000 Gil, mega-potions, and another sphere—this time from Braska--, and a defending bracer. Night began closing in just as the nomads reached the pass beyond which lay Zanarkand…or what was left of it.

The sharing of tents had ended when Tidus spotted a man on the slope ahead of them. Wantz: O'aka's brother.

"Harper?" She was curled up inside blankets, laying down, wishing she could sleep, when Tidus called for her outside her tent. "Harp, are you in there?"

She was, in a sense, in the tent. Whether or not she was inside her head was a different story. Harper had been trying to cross the void existing between the real world, and the phantom realm Sephiroth and she had spent time together in. It didn't happen.

"Yeah?" She replied, drawing herself together, which was slightly harder than it should have been due to the cold she had picked up. Again.

"Are you sick?" Tidus asked after she tried to muffle a cough.

"Yeah, what do you want, Tidus?" She wanted him to go away, but knew there'd be no such luck. (Pessimistic, is she not?)

There was a pause before he started again. "Well…if you're—"

Harper stuck her head through the tent flap, holding it closed at her throat. "You came over here, asked me if I was in here, and are beating around a bush. _What_ do you want?" She really hated being disturbed lately if there was no real point to it, or if the person who did the disturbing backed out of what they wanted to say before they said it.

"We've noticed that you and Vincent are …"

"On the outs!" Rikku chimed as she appeared behind Tidus. Harper shot her a look. "And we intend to help!"

Harper's gaze turned to Tidus again. "What?" When he looked like he was going to answer… she cut in with "First off, who is this 'we'?"

"Everybody. Even Auron said we should do something," he answered.

"Auron…your reasons being…?"

Then Auron stepped up behind Rikku, who left when she realized he was there. "Yuna, Lulu and I have come to the understanding that you and Vincent aren't getting along well." _You could say that…_Harper thought. "The three of us have told everyone else, and we all agree: we cannot go into Zanarkand, or further…to battle Sin, if the two of you cannot work together."

"We can work together," Harper protested, albeit futilely.

Auron turned and started walking away, saying only, "Settle it."

Harper got to her feet and rushed past Tidus, still bundled in blankets. "How do you s'pose I do that!? I didn't start it!" All she got was a wave of a hand. "Uhgh." She turned back to go inside again.

"Wakka and I have come up with something…"

"What is it?"

Tidus grinned.

The two of them stood centre stage…but on a cliff…with nine people watching. Vincent had agreed without knowing what was really going on, and Harper…Harper just wanted to hit something. Anything. The rules of the match had been explained. Other than "Don't _literally kill_ your opponent", there were none. Wakka would give the signal when Auron was done explaining to Harper and Vincent why they were sparring. In the end, Vincent stayed, but grudgingly. Wakka gave the signal.

Vincent didn't really know it, but he had pent up rage at something he couldn't identify, so then…out it came in an explosion of electricity which met Harper's hastily thrown up shield. She drew her sword and advanced, covering the distance between them in a single blink. But she only found the golden metal of Vincent's left arm beneath her sword's edge. Retreating only a fraction of a step, she came back in with a diagonal uppercut which Vincent ducked easily. He attacked next with the butt of his empty gun directed at Harper's shoulder. Her sword caught the blow before she spun it out of Vincent's hand, forcing him to draw his own sword. From that point on, blood was drawn just as quickly as the wounds from which it flowed were healed. Vincent had become nearly her match in swordsmanship, but only nearly. Still, at the same time, each managed to lock the others sword with their own, and –after a moment of struggle—the swords sailed away in the direction of their audience. Auron didn't flinch as Harper's katana whistled by his head. The figures out on the cliff in front of him moved at lightning speed as they were forced into hand-to-hand combat. Harper, being smaller than Vincent, maneuvered around him easily and delivered her punches quickly and accurately. Being lighter simply because she was a girl made her faster, even if by a fraction of a second, and gave her the opening she needed to land her knee in his stomach before she slid behind him and planted her foot on his lower back. Despite all this, Vincent was having the same results: whenever he struck, he found his mark and made sure she knew it.

The snow around them had become a mess of tracks and blood and was nearly flattened by their movements. Here and there outside the main battle-ground were depressions in the snow where one of them had flown past the main battle area and landed, only to rush back into the brawl.

They kept at this for at least a half hour. The sun began to sink below the horizon somewhere, but not on the mountain-top. It had vanished behind the peaks ages ago, leaving the camp at the mercy of what light fire could bring.

At the end of the supposed half hour, Harper changed her tactics. She began hitting spots that would sap more energy than a simple punch to the face would. Vincent understood and returned the change in kind. (Little did they know, but during their days with SHINRA, though at different times, they had been trained by the same man.) With this new change in style, the fight was quickly drawing to a close, though one would never be able to tell by their flurried movements that only seemed to increase in speed as their energy decreased. Finally, they both rushed each other, heading for the same pressure-point as the other, and crashed together after each hit the intended mark.

For a moment the group of travelers waited to see who would get up first and claim the match, but when a still amount of time passed and neither did, Wakka and Lulu ran out to the two sprawled figures in the snow. Apparently Vincent had gotten her first, but even as she had been headed toward the oblivion of unconsciousness Harper had made contact as well. Vincent's momentum had laid them both the same way, and his arm was draped over her belly.

"You think this solved anything?" Wakka asked.

"Perhaps," was all Lulu said before calling to Auron for help in moving the two passed out people in the now flattened snow.

She finally got to that nether-place…but not the way she had earlier intended. Once again she had to be unconscious before she could enter that realm. As she had hoped, Sephiroth, her father, was waiting for her.

For a while neither said anything, but then…

"Did you always want to get away from those around you, before…you know…" Harper asked, hugging her knees to her chest.

"Yes," Sephiroth replied, sitting down across from her. "It was that want which led me to the library beneath the SHINRA Estate in Nibelheim. In this case it would be correct to say, 'Like father, like daughter.'"

As much as she hated to admit it, Harper nodded and repeated, "'Like father, like daughter.'"

"You and Valentine really had a time of it." He was referring to the fight.

"Yeah. I'm really starting to wonder why…with Kadaj…"

"Cut him some slack, Harper," Sephiroth mildly chastised. "At the time he did what was right by right, and by you, and—what's more---he was following his heart, which men like him don't often do after the things that happened to him, happen."

She considered his words for a moment as she stared down at the blackness under her that seemed as if it was right there, beneath her, and yet empty…like she could begin to fall at any moment. "How much can you tell me?"

"That depends on the question…" He cocked his head and crossed his ankles. "Ask, and I'll do my best."

Still looking at the nothing/something-ness, Harper asked, "Does this have anything to do with Lucrecia?"

"Lucrecia? No, I think this time it is more a matter of his not trusting himself. It has been a while, to say the least, since he has dealt with a woman in this manner…perhaps he doesn't know how he will react to some things…where his boundaries lay…things of that nature…"

"Yeah, maybe…Or maybe I'm pushing him…?" (A/N: I just bit my tongue…! OWW!)

"Neither of us can really say what's on his mind…: it's his mind. And…" Sephiroth looked to the corners of his eyes as if remembering something. "He's waking up…"

"Time for me to go?"

"Let this run its course…if the two of you last through it, you'll both be the better because of it. Look at Cloud: would he be half the person he is now if he would have given up when opposing me?"

"No…" Harper agreed. "But you know, Strife was acting funny last time I saw him…"

"Hmm…good luck with him then." That was the last thing Sephiroth said before Harper found herself back in her own mind and body, wondering whether he was talking about Cloud, or Vincent.

"….Harper?" It was Vincent, and he was behind her. Harper tried to groan to signal her awareness, but her voice stuck in her throat, making her sound more like a croaking, congested frog. "Are you awake…?"

After clearing her throat, she said, "Yes."

For a while they just laid there, for lying they were.

"Vincent?" Nothing came from beside her. "Will you—"

"It was many things, none of them about you. Most were phantoms of my past, and shadows of a future. Lucrecia…I will never be rid of my feelings for her, but she is gone… Cloud loved Aeris, she died and he loves her still; but he has learned to accept that and has begun to move on; as have I.

"Had I known all this before…I still would have fought for you, but we would not be having this conversation now. I handled the situation badly, and I am sorry for that…

"However, I am not sorry these things have arisen. Had they not, things may have concluded in a different way in the future…To sum it all up—I should have had this all figured out before-hand, but I didn't, and I'm sorry for that. Now I do, and I hope it will save us from future turmoil…

"Either you agree with me in this…or I have misjudged you."

Mentally, Harper applauded herself for staying silent through his explanation. She let the silence hang for a moment before saying, "I do agree…Thank you, Vincent." With that she turned to him, and was mildly surprised to find him close to her, also coming in for a kiss. "So everything's good now?" Harper asked once their brief contact was severed.

Vincent laughed in his almost inaudible way, "Yes."

Harper let out a little squeal of delight before throwing herself at Vincent, only to wrap him in a hug. Once again their lips met in a kiss, this one lasting longer than the last…

But still not long enough. For it seemed just as they began a commotion came from outside.

Both Harper and Vincent tore apart and grabbed for their weapons, which were lying close at hand. They burst from the tent into the full light of day (had they really been out that long?). There, at the edge of the cliff, was what was causing the commotion. And it should have caused one. Seymour was rising above the cliff, lance in hand and ready for use.

What would later be known as Seymour Flux hovered just beyond the cliff edge. Three of the others were already there, but only speaking with the corrupt maester. Everyone else could feel that the battle would erupt with volcanic force shortly. Indeed, just after that very thought left Wakka's thought stream, Seymour thrust his lance toward Auron and missed narrowly. Tidus was KO'd quickly, revived, and replaced immediately to afford him time to fully recover. Still feeling groggy and hoping exertion would help wake him, Vincent jumped at the opening; Harper did so too when Yuna fell out. Wakka took Auron's place, was soon replaced by Lulu. Tidus finally came back in, giving Vincent a short rest. Short because soon after Tidus relieved him, Harper took a blow that KO'd and sent her sprawling backwards. Again Vincent jumped. When finally one of the others fell out, they revived Harper, who joined again against her former companion. Everything was going well, until Seymour decided to again focus on Harper spontaneously...Too spontaneously for her to react.

Her gasp echoed in the silence that wasn't silence, which only Harper and Vincent experienced. For Vincent, the world froze. He didn't see the end of the fight, but he knew they eventually succeeded; the only thing he knew was moving was himself toward Harper, who lay in snow already darkened by her own blood, and was still bleeding when Vincent knelt beside her. The blood-flow was beginning to slow though—she was running out of blood to bleed. Seymour's javelin had lanced through her femoral artery (a wound that normally would have been fixable, were the wounded not already too far gone). Valentine knew Harper was already greatly past that point. Faintly, Vincent wondered how she was even still alive, but more than that he felt she could make it out of this.

Harper's eyes fluttered and opened, though the look in them spoke only of the coming wind of death. That hope Vincent had, however foolish he knew it had been, vanished when he looked into her eyes. He knew, without a doubt, that she was going to go. She was going to return to the Plane--

"Vin—" shook him out of his thought. Harper's eyes fluttered for a moment before she tried to go on, and failed.

"Don't die…" He found himself stuttering slightly. "Harper, I…"

She nodded as best she could and managed a weak, "I know." And against all odds, she pushed herself to sit up and turned to face Vincent, though the pain of the act was dreadfully apparent.

"Harper…"

"Please…just…" She grabbed him by the shoulders with amazing strength for her state and pulled him into a kiss, even as she began to leave.

He felt it happen. Suddenly he was aware of everything, though he had his eyes closed. He felt the glowing orbs of her spirit around him, searching for a route to the Lifestream, he figured; and he felt the other's eyes on him. But mostly he was aware of the single shot he had left in Cerberus.

Vincent got to his feet, pulled out his gun, and stared at it. Wakka. He considered him his only friend in this…Spira. So he turned, Cerberus in hand at his side, and strode toward Wakka. "Take it." He presented the grip to the other. Wakka did as he was asked and watched in horror as Vincent gripped his wrist and leveled the tri-barreled gun on his chest. Together the stood: Vincent broke, having his own weapon aimed at point-blank at his chest; Wakka in silent disbelief. Neither knew or cared what the others were doing. "Shoot, Wakka." Vincent began dropping his guards one by one.

"What?! No way, man—"

Vincent spat a curse. "Shoot, Wakka!"

Wakka's finger twitched out of sheer panic. "No…"

Before Vincent realized it, all walls were down within himself…even the one barring Chaos from having total control over the former Turk.

"If you won't kill him, then I will…"

No one understood.

"I've been waiting for a moment like this for thirty years," the creature growled in explanation.

"Chaos!" Wakka breathed,

Just before Vincent dropped,

Dead, before all of them.

Va was the only one who dared speak, but only after a while of time passed and the red orbs of Vincent (and possibly the creatures held within him) dispersed and disappeared. "What was…"

"Chaos…" Wakka repeated.

He was looking straight into blue eyes. There was the soft crinkling of paper as a piece hit the floor after being dropped, and his own desperate breathing as he slowly came to realize where he was.

Midgar: 7Th Heaven.

Barret.

Tifa.

Red XIII.

Cloud.

Vincent knew the people around him. They knew him. But how had he gotten there? He had died: Chaos had ripped him apart from the inside, but there he was standing in the hall of Tifa's 7Th Heaven.

"Cloud…?" Vincent started, then staggered, the world flipped, and he was staring at the ceiling before darkness embraced him.

A/N: If someone doesn't review, heads are going to roll. Joking, of course…but reviews would be nice! There should be another story coming… hehe…. And another after that…and only one person knows the entire plot! Yay! There is also the _slight _chance of there being a side story…but I kinda doubt it… if there is, it would take place in … America? in the _Darkwatch_ setting. Whee…but as I said, I doubt it. (I didn't edit this at all….so please please please excuse any errors or reduntantness and/or just random oddball junk.)


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